This first edition of a new semiannual publication for secondary school teachers of social studies features the article, "The Federal Deficit: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy Makers" (Walter Heller and Bruce Dalgaard) and provides ideas for subject area teaching activities in economics, U.S. government, and world history that offer teachers an opportunity to integrate the federal deficit topic into their courses. The teaching activity for economics presents a simulation where students participate in the real world of special interest politics and trade-offs involved in trying to balance the federal budget. In the simulation, students try to cut spending to meet the goals of the Gramm-Rudman Act. The U.S. history activity has students compare the public debt between the years 1790 and 1984. Also, students discuss the advantages and disadvantages of deficit spending and effects on national policy goals. The government teaching activity is a student panel discussion on how the federal deficit affects the local community. The world history activities illustrate how the concept of government debt applied to post-World War I Germany and draw parallels with current issues related to government debt and increasing deficits. (SM)

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